JenEric Designs

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

---

Chapter 4: Finding out we’re not alone

The corridor on the other side of the hatch lit up as we walked with some sort of fluorescent light, harsh and bright but illuminating everything. There were small portholes that let us look outside that must have been shielded because we could look at the sun without burning our eyes.

I couldn’t help looking out every one of them. Space is beautiful. It’s the reason I saw the comet coming toward us. “Run!” I screamed.

To everyone’s credit, they listened to me and we ran. We barely managed to close the hatch at the end when the comet destroyed the corridor. It smashed apart like it was made from cardboard.

“Look,” said T and he pointed to the habitat we’d been in. Untethered from the main station, it flew away for a few seconds before the engines I hadn’t noticed before kicked in and it flew away from the sun, and us.

W threw her curly brown hair back and laughed. “Wow. We chose the wrong option.”

We were in a small airlock. When we opened the other hatch we found ourselves in a massive cargo area. It was filled with crates, boxes, even a few small space ships. I didn’t see the rows upon rows of stasis pods until we’d walked half-way to the next spoke that would lead to another habitat. Going to the closest one, I saw it had someone inside.    

“Oh my goodness,” said S as she looked down the row. “That’s easily two thousand people, assuming they are all full, and there aren’t more on the levels above us.” She pointed at a map on the wall that showed there were nine more levels like this one. 

I pointed at the level below us and said, “That’s a docking ring. There could be ships down there that we could use to get out of here.”

A gestured at the small ships near us and asked, “Why not use that?”

With an annoyed sigh, T replied, “Those are short range shuttles. They won’t be able to escape the sun’s gravity.”

“I still think it’s worth a try,” A said with a scowl.

“We can’t leave all these people to fry in the sun!” exclaimed W. “We have to find a way to save them.” 

Nodding, I agreed. “We can’t wake them. They don’t have these suits and would need food, drink, etc. Let’s figure out how to save them first.”

“We need to find out if the station is capable of moving on its own,” T said with authority. With a little bashfulness, he added, “But I can’t read any of this.” He pointed at the map. “We need to find a computer terminal and assess the damage.”

“Maybe we should split up? Some of us go find a computer and others go check for ships?” S suggested.

I was going to argue but the rest of the group agreed. T pointed to me and said, “You can read this stuff. You and I should find a computer.” He gestured at the massive platform that worked like an elevator from the docking ring up to the top cargo bay. “I assume that’s an elevator?”

“I can also read whatever language this is. l’ll check for any ships,” W said. 

A looked grumpy and said, “I’ll go with you.”

When we all looked at S, she bounced in place a little and said, “I’ll check to see if any of the other habitats are still intact. Maybe we could get everyone in one and fly away?”

“I wish we had radios,” I said.

T looked around and went to a crate that was marked for Cygnus 3. He pulled off a board and reached in, taking out a box. He handed each of us an earpiece from the box when he returned.

“How did you know that was there?” I asked incredulously.

Shrugging, T replied, “I just knew they were. I could feel them there.”

“Cool!” exclaimed S and it echoed through the earpiece. “Like how you can tell that the hull is made with carbotanium-aluminide alloy arranged in a honeycomb form.” When everyone gave her a blank look, she added, “Just me then.”

We split up, and as T and I took the elevator up, I could see that not only was each level full but levels five to nine had only stasis pods. That meant there were over fifty-thousand people on board. 

“Why are we the only ones awake?” I asked aloud.

T seemed to think about it and said, “The pod people have regular clothes, which means we were either being used as workers or test subjects. Maybe there were more of us in the habitats?”

“That makes sense, but if this is a slaver ship, where are all the slavers?” My question was answered when we reached level ten. 

The bay was just as large and just as full but instead of cargo or stasis pods there were row upon row of robot suits. They were so tightly packed, I couldn’t count how many. Each of them was connected by a hose to a set of large vats filled with black liquid.

“The Andromeda Syndicate!” I said too loudly. Nothing moved despite my volume.

Looking pale, T said, “They’re intergalactic slavers and black market dealers. A hive mind of fungus that uses robots to interact with other races.”

“The fungus is usually white,” I observed and then added, “I hate how these memories come up only when we’re confronted with them instead of when it would be helpful.”

The black goo churned and sputtered. It looked like it was trying to get to the robots but someone, or something, had turned off the tubes.

“We should get out of here before they activate,” I suggested.

We ran for where the map had said the main computer was and found a door that was splattered with black goo and dried blood. The door handle had icicle-like dried drips of the mixture.

“I really don’t want to touch that,” I said.

Then something big hit the door from the other side.

Read Chapter 5 (May 2026)

---

While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:

• 2025 – Scarlet Thread Irregulars (Urban Fantasy)
• 2024 – Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story (Space Opera)
• 2023 – The Suns of War (Sci-Fi, Epic)
• 2022 – Birth of the Aetherverse (Fantasy)
• 2021 – Diamond Stars and the Galactic Heist (Sci-Fi, Heist, Romance)
• 2020 – Point Zero (Superhero, Sci-Fi)
• 2019 – Seren Plentyn and the Secret of Hokulua Station (Sci-Fi Adventure Mystery)